Carac on lips

On 3/28/2007 Mwgolf23 wrote:

 

On 3/28/2007 Tooplohuny wrote:

 

On 2/20/2007 Squirtle wrote:

My dermatologist prescribed Carac for me yesterday to begin using on my lips. I am going to begin using it on Thursday night. It is the .05% and I am to use it at bedtime every night. I have a follow up appoinment scheduled for two weeks from now. I thought that would be the end of using the cream, but after finding these forums realized that would be the half way point.

I am very scared of what the cream is going to do to my lips. I have read about all of the irritation and discomfort caused on other areas, and the lips seem so much more sensitive. Does anyone have any experience using the Carac on their lips?

To make all of this worse, I am starting a new job in a hospital tomorrow. I work in a small office now, so I wouldn't have to worry about strange looks wondering what is wrong with me... but I am sure that will be different at my new job.

Yesterday (3/27/07) my dermatologist perscribed a 2 week treatement of Carac for my lips. I am scared to death and wondered how your treatement went. Do you feel like it was worth it?

I thought I would chime in about efudex treatment for lips.  I haven't yet completed my 2x nightly for 14 days.  In a previous post I was at day 9, I am now on day 11 and since I am ahead of you by at least 10 days I thought you might be interested in how my process is going.

My first week was virtually unnoticeable.  So if you react anything like me you should be ok in public during that time.  Not until about day 6 or so did I notice a tightness and the beginnings of swelling on my lower lip.  I was able to disguise a slight discoloration that was beginning using some lipstick.  The inner part of my lower lip starting showing raised white bumps and then a solid raised band but no pain just tightness.  Corners of lips started getting sore and then some little white bumps showed up. But since this was still the area toward my teeth, I was still able to hide it pretty well.  Day 7, 8 and 9 I had the most swelling and the raised band became yellow and angry.  Luckily this coincided with 2 days off work because this stage just sucked and sent me running to the internet to see if I could find out more from anyone else.  I stayed at home and have not even wanted to go to the grocery store.

Even my upper lip became involved and that is normal tissue not being treated.  I think it's because the lips are like mucous membrane and very sensitive so my advice would be to cover the upper lip with vaseline of some waxy lip balm to keep the carac from irritating the upper lip if it is not being treated. 

During the big swelling days I put ice on my lip as often as I could which helped the discomfort.  I had also eaten alot of citrus and salty foods those days which I think would have best been avoided.  Day 10 and 11 I have worked but, luckily, in a small office where a co-worker is covering the public contact for me.  I consider my lip unsightly but I'm told it's not that noticeable - like very chapped lips- is how someone described it.  I think they're just sugar-coating it for me, bless their hearts.  The swelling has gone down which helps the appearance some.

 I have three more nights of treatment and I can keep you posted if you like.  Or, in a week or so I can let you know how the recovery is going.

I guess my feeling at the moment is that if it really is attacking those pre-cancerous cells then it's worth it.  And I should be grateful that there is an available treatment for this level of sun damage that does not include cutting (especially because it's the lip)  Ahh, vanity...    But much remains to be seen at this point.

I wish you well.

Mary

 

Just read about your experience Mary.

I am in day 11 Efudex treatment on my lower lip. I don't need to tell you it looks awful. All swollen and scabs all over it. Plus it cracks and bleeds. Luckly very little pain so far.

How long after your treatment stoped did it take for your lip to clear up enough that you didn't look so terrible?

Thanks Jack

Ah, I have finally found a discussion about Efudex/Carac on the lips...I kept getting on discussion boards where everybody was just doing face.  I see nobody has posted here for a while, so I hope with my posting, somebody else will get on, and we can discuss this.  The previous postings were very helpful to me...THANK YOU, altho I'm sure those of you who are done with this aren't reading this anymore!  But generally it just helped to hear there ARE other people using Efudex on the lips.  Most of the postings have been people who are in the middle of treatment...is there anybody out there who can tell me how long until my lips will look normal again?  And then what?  What do you put on your lips so that this doesn't happen all over again?  I have tried dozens of lip screens/blocks in the past, and still yet have to find the perfect one.  I do NOT want to get sunburned lips again, and I'm afraid, when I'm done with this treatment, that my lips will be like baby-new and super-sensitive.  Yet, I can not spend the rest of my life indoors....I hike and bike and canoe and ski and garden, and will continue to do so.  I am on Day 6 now....bright redness has developed now into crusting oozing ugly scabby things on my lips.  Will this get worse and worse?  It is pretty bad right now.  Luckily I am hiding out at home and am not going anyplace.  Hope somebody gets on this message board to discuss this!

I was pleased as you were to finally read a little about the lip treatment with carac.  I applied carac for 9 days but slathered it on too thickly (MORE in this case is NOT better).  My derm. said that with the reaction experienced - bleeding, cracked lips with the pain of needles sticking in to it - to discontinue usage; the treatment has in his educated opinion, done it's work on the degree of damage I had. I am now at Day 5 of no Carac and I have to say that there has been little change to the condition of my lip.  Same bleeding, cracking with needle pain. Slathering tons of Vaseline on it helps but as I sit here typing, I am very aware of the tingling/burning sensation.  The cycle starts in the a.m., out of bed with crusty blood that is washed clean with great trepidation since I know the pain cleaning up brings..Then Vaseline (which DOES reduce the stinging), then oozing, then blotting off the ooze, then Vaseline, then blotting, etc.  By late afternoon, the stinging and liklihood of cracking and bleeding starts up.  Once again, I wash up (water at any temp stings but a necessary evil) and continue the routine til bedtime. The derm. also said to use Desoximetasone cream but I found that the two hours it sat on my lips without any moisture was also quite brutal. I haven't used it for a few days.  Now I wonder if it would aid in the recovery..?  How long does it take to get the lip back to a normal condition? Would the Desoximetasone cream accelerate healing?  What has been your experience now that you are back to normal?  (your posting was in october, 2007 - I HOPE you are eating, drinking, SMILING again!  Probably as a combined result of losing my appetite due to the Carac as well as the hassle it is to eat, I've lost 7 lbs.  NOT the desired way to lose!  Also, have noticed that small cuts or abrasions take longer to heal and bleed a lot more than usual..Please provide me with your experiences-I'm a little discouraged at this point.  Thank you!

My derm gave me a prescription for Carac to apply to the lower lip, and she told me to make a follow-up appointment for 3 weeks.  She said do not stop using the carac until I come back to see her.  Her office called me when I was close to the end of the 3 weeks, said they needed to reschedule for 5 days later, so I ended up applying carac to the full surface of lower lip for a total of 26 days.

I think this may have been too long on the fleshy part of the lip (on the border of my lip, I used carac for a long time, and it worked great, got rid of my ak, healed up and is not at all tender now).  At first, my lower lip seemed to be healing up nicely. Now I am almost 3 months post using carac, and for the last 2 weeks my lip has begun stinging and burning, very tender, still feels tight when smiling.  This seems like an awfully long time.  I have only been using vasoline/or aquaphor and zinc oxide/or cotz lip protector on it....except I did use aloe (from a plant I have) about 2 weeks ago.....so perhaps this could be the cause of my relapse and stinging.

I go back to the dermatologist in 2 days, and I am hoping she will tell me all is well, that healing of the lips is just a slow process.  I did have a lot of 'destruction of tissue' there. 

Hope everyone is doing well.